Office '08 permissions issue [updated 2]
January 25th 2008
Computer World (NZ) reports that Microsoft has confirmed a problem with 2008. It seems Office for Mac 2008 incorrectly assigns ownership of some files.
"[Microsoft] moved to Apple's Package Maker (.pkg) installer files, good news for the enterprise, [but] unfortunately they've created all the packages to install most all of the files with the owner set to 502," said Joel Bruner, a Chicago-based Mac consultant, who was the first to notice the problem.
In a shop where employees run with limited privileges--common in the enterprise--and IT is the only user with full administrative rights, Office 2008's ownership assignment means that a user who wasn't supposed to have complete control over those files actually does. In other words, whomever is assigned user ID 502 has full read/write access to Office's files, which could be a security issue.
[Update]In related news, Mac OS X Hints has published a "comprehensive list" of Office 2008 issues.
[Update 2] In a Macworld write up, the Mac BU claims to be aware of the various issues affecting Office 2008 and that they're working on fixes.
Editor's note: Sounds like this issue could be easily ameliorated with the quick AppleScript while the Mac BU puts together a patch. Embarrassing nonetheless...
What's your take?
